A/N: The Angstrofuck of Doom continues and finally delivers what you call came here for - violence.
As usual, none of this would be possible without the dedicated assistance of the Editing Gang - seriously, you should see these train-wrecks before they get a chance to fix them up!
Also, as usual, you should check out Aberron's "Living an Indoctrinated Dream."
The Editing Gang made me link this: L. Lamora's "The Game of Champions."
'I have always found people forget the first rule of the waves - they crash upon the shore, and sometimes drag you back out to sea with the undertow. Take care that your actions do not leave you adrift upon an ocean of unforeseen difficulties.'
-Priestess of the Stars Trellani, 2144, presentation to the Assembled Clans
From the very beginning, Dunn knew this assault was going to suck.
That the GTS flak cannons protecting the spaceport were quiescent and not blasting them out of the sky didn't ease the queasy feeling in his stomach. The flight was smooth, and as they came down for a landing, he wondered about how good these Sisters really were with their hacking and what-not.
It didn't make sense that they could just waltz in and catch the best of the Broker's people off guard like this. Unless, of course, it was a trap.
The first shuttle had already touched down in the small landing area in front of the hotel proper, while the other shuttles were just now setting down at the larger pad on the other side. The Canni Hotel was, like most asari structures, an elegant arched tower of armaglass and silver bracing spars hanging over a crescent-shaped lobby and amenities area.
Wing-like annexes – gyms, spas, and the like – flanked the rear courtyard and were open to the beach and the sea, separated from the landing area by a high retaining wall to block the noise of shuttles. The west side of the hotel was a low, single-story structure used mostly for large business meetings flanked by smaller landing and parking areas.
His shuttle landed with a thump, the doors slamming open as Morinth took the lead in disembarking, her hands full of a matte-black customized Revenant LMG. He followed her out, his trusty N7 Renegade rifle – the prototype of the modern Valkyrie – a reassuring weight. He checked the immediate vicinity for any hostiles, but the landing area was deserted except for a few service mechs, and the other shuttle had already disgorged the rest of the team.
Thane was already moving ahead, speaking quietly into his comm-link as the rest of the group followed, sticking to the high armaplast walls nearest the hotel. The Dancer listened to something, then spoke to the team, his voice quiet. "My snipers are in position. They report two dug in heavy combat teams in the lobby, and a sniper wet-team on the roof. We have eyes on at least two more teams – unsure of composition – on the top floor, penthouse-level."
Morinth's voice sounded a bit nervous. "Uh, the difference between a wet-team and a heavy combat team is…?"
Telanya's voice was hushed as they rounded the edge of the docking pad toward the entry of the hotel. "Wet-teams are lightly armed snipers and tech-savants, designed to strike hard from stealth – they have a few failed Dancers in their number. Heavy combat teams are elites from all over the galaxy: ex-N7, ex-SIU, ex-STG, and worse. Usually carrying very heavy weapons."
Dunn's experienced gaze took in the glassed doors ahead. "Entryway is not clear. Two guys, black armor, Broker sigil."
Thane spoke. "Hold. I will handle them." He moved into the shadows of the supporting pillars holding up the canopy covering the approach to the entrance… and then just seemingly vanished into thin air.
Aethyta's voice was wry. "And that's why Dancers scare the shit out of me. Last thing you never see coming."
A moment later, a red-coated shape leapt between the two Broker soldiers. His hands moved too fast to see, but one of the soldiers simply collapsed, head lolling sickeningly from a clearly broken neck, while the other sprayed bright blue blood from his torn open throat before Thane viciously knifed him again and lowered him gently to the ground.
Dunn winced. Fucker's lethal enough. Then again, we have like fifteen goddamned Dancers and a pack of asari blademasters. Why am I even worried? He smiled behind his helmet. "Looks like we're up."
Liara took a deep breath. "Matriarch Aethyta, kick off the mechs, please. Matriarch Trellani, alert your men to prepare."
Trellani tapped her own comm-link, her voice serene. "Feline, this is Priestess. Time to party." The Centurion Leader merely clicked his mic twice to confirm, even as Aethyta's face was lit by her omni-tool as she triggered a program. A few seconds later, the ground shook and the sound of alarms rang out in every direction.
Tela Vasir turned to her. "…Auntie, what are those mechs carrying for weapons?"
The blademistress laughed. "Mostly mixes of batarian and turian weapons… and a trio of upgraded Cobra blast rifles." The sounds of more explosions and faint screams echoed across the landing area. "And it sounds like Cerberus brought some toys of their own."
Thane gestured. "Good. The east lobby is clear, form up."
Dunn followed the former priestess into the lobby proper, a wide-open space filled with high pillars, curved couches, a fountain surrounding a travel information kiosk, and a blocky set of restrooms – male, female, elcor – in one corner. The middle of the room was dominated by a wide spiral staircase of polished gray-black stones, with a brass handrail running along both sides.
Liara paused. "This lobby is directly below where the main elevators come out at ground level – this is technically a sub-floor. The floor above us is a wide foyer area, leading out towards the main front lobby. If they react as we expect, they should dispatch their teams to secure the front, and head down this way to get to the spaceport."
As she spoke, Trellani took up a position behind a thick pillar, so Dunn set himself next to her, behind the heavy stone of the fountain. Vasir and Morinth tucked in behind the fountain, along with Thane.
The Blades concealed themselves along the sweep of the heavy stone staircase leading down from the hotel, the rest of the Dancers behind the block of restrooms against the wall. Dunn was about to speak when more explosions rocked the hotel, and the faint sounds of screaming could be heard.
Aethyta's voice was a touch tense as she spoke. "Get ready. I can't imagine Tetrimus being stupid enough to just come flying down those stairs. We got any eyes on his group?"
Telanya spoke a second later. "Drone telemetry. There's a lot of movement inside. They just hacked the security system, I think, I've got scripts to mess up the internal cameras, but it won't take them long to get past that. Movement in the main elevators."
Another explosion shook the building. Liara tapped her omni-tool in a long pattern. "Crashing a shuttle at the front entrance then sending in the mechs. Thane, any sign of the targets?"
The drell tapped his own comm-link, listening intently to something on a private channel, then nodded. "My people have taken down the roof snipers and are shooting at will. The top floor is empty."
Liara tapped her own omni-tool. "Kicking off the comm-link hacks now. We're going to try to tap into their communications if we can, jam them if we can't."
Dunn just wished this shit was over, as he heard the sound of heavy boots from the landing above the lobby.
O-TWCD-O
Tetrimus glanced warily toward the front lobby areas, even as two more of his teams hustled toward the front, rifles ready. Behind him, Nassana and a trio of her people glanced around fearfully as the building shuddered under another blast.
He turned to the giant krogan standing next to him. "Thax, head up and figure out who's hitting us. Midnight's Kiss and her team form up around Nassana. Immutable, see if you can get control back of the security systems. Brek, take your heavy combat units to back up the ones at the front."
He tapped his omni, and then cursed. "Where is my damned comm-net to the backup forces and Tazzik?"
One of the salarian tech-savants was typing furiously on a portable unit, eyes narrowing and expression drawn back into a grimace. "Hacked, Ginnister. Over two thousand runtimes. I'm trying to reroute."
The cool, monotone voice of the Immutable spoke. "All comms are down. Externals are jammed with multiple VI systems. They correspond to known Sisters of Vengeance attack routines. The entire security net is compromised. I am slowly regaining control, but ETA until I have complete access is over one megasecond."
Another tech-savant shouted over more explosions. "Ginnister, we're locked out from external security and all perimeter defenses are down! We can't even link to the spaceport."
Tetrimus nodded. "I should have expected this. No matter." He turned to the other Broker soldiers surrounding them. "Team Ziha and Urha, clear the lower lobby area and make sure we have a clear run to the spaceport. Teams Vita through Mentos, prepare pursuit disengagement – set up here, blow the elevator shafts, and drop mines."
He turned to the three heavy combat teams. "Tyra, Lentha, and Vorsk teams, once the lobby's secure, move to clear a path to the spaceport and the frigate, and take control of spaceport security. Blow the comm relays there so no one tips the justicars off to what we're doing."
The bulky figure of Thax Varun in the distance gave a snort, his voice on the comm-link harsh. "We're not fleeing, surely."
Tetrimus gestured toward the front lobby, where a pair of Broker soldiers attempting to snipe were blasted to pieces by incoming Hydra missiles. "If you really want to run straight into a full-out assault, be my guest, krogan. The spaceport will be easier to defend than this shantha nest."
The krogan's voice was musing. "Assuming they haven't already taken up positions there."
Tetrimus shrugged. "I suspect we'll know shortly."
O-TWCD-O
The comm-link tap the Sisters had set up worked just fine. Liara's face twisted in hate behind her helmet as she recognized the confident voice barking orders. She glanced over at Thane, speaking softly. "They are sending out scouts."
Thane's voice was almost a whisper. "Yes. I can hear them already. We must kill them fast – and we cannot make much noise – they are not that far from us. Take them silently."
She nodded, and shifted her weapon to her holster as her free hand clenched around her warp sword. Trellani had already quietly drawn hers as the sound of boots hitting steps echoed down to their floor.
There was a pause, as the soldiers paused on the landing above them. "First floor, clear. Heading down. Double up, be ready to rush." Then more clattering footfalls echoed.
Two five-man teams of figures – turian and asari – in black armor and readied small arms rushed down the stone staircase. The first two had no time to even register the presence of others before Trellani flung a blade of kinetic force, while she used a lift to pull them to the side and gently drop them on the floor.
Thane and Aethyta both made hand gestures as the soldiers stumbled to a halt. The right-side team was hit by four perfectly thrown daggers of green and silver, each one propelled by biotics to cruelly devastating speeds. Three men went down instantly, falling to the ground silently as biotics enfolded them, the last clutched his throat and sank to his knees.
Even as they fell, the Black Blades had opened up with sound-suppressed rifles and utterly silent pulls. Jerking the men off their feet, they had no chance as each one was headshot, then slowly lowered to the ground. A moment later, one of the Blades lifted the entire group of corpses up and out of the way.
Ten Broker soldiers, dead in under a second. Dunn was pretty impressed, but gripped his rifle tighter as more screams rang out from above.
The comm-link tap crackled into life again, with a rough, heavy voice speaking. "Tetrimus. I'm at the front. There are several enemy snipers, in the distance, almost eighty heavily armed and armored mechs, and some kind of team of asari or humans in heavy black armor, across from the plaza. The rooftop unit was slaughtered. And those soldiers out front are shelling the building with a plasma mortar. You have put us in a trap, turian."
Tetrimus's voice, calm and collected. "No, Thax, the entire hotel is bait. I've got eight teams in hiding in that front lobby, when they storm in we'll end them. And we have five more and two heavies at the spaceport. Still, let's get moving – the Sisters are crazy enough to hit the hotel with a ship or…"
The clack of a cane on stone steps sounded over the comm-link and then didn't repeat. Dunn's teeth clenched. And then he heard a curse. "Team Ziha, Urha, respond."
Silence, and then the heavy, rough voice again sounded over the comm-link. "You were saying something about this being a trap, I believe?"
"Silence. It may be more comms jamming. Cena Dantius, please stay back. This is likely to get… messy. Tyra, Lentha, Vorsk. Clear a path through whatever is down there, or if Ziha and Urha are there, send two men back with a manual report. Everyone else, form up."
The clatter of boots on steps came again, and this time the teams charging down were aware they were headed into danger. A trio of smoke grenades clanked down the steps, exploding into thick, blinding smoke.
Trellani merely smiled and gestured, her biotics lighting up the entire room as the smoke hit an invisible wall, and then was pushed back up the staircase. Curses rang out from the figures as some unexpectedly stumbled, and they rushed down, firing wildly as they broke through the smoke.
Dunn fired on the first one he saw, joined by most of the rest. The first five Broker soldiers down the stairs died instantly, transfixed by rifle shots, although they did manage to score a few hits on Tela Vasir's barrier.
The rank behind them threw themselves into rolls, two diving off the side of the staircase to land below, right into the Black Blades, the other five flinging grenades.
A pair of warp swords left trails of blue fire and two headless corpses fell to the ground, even as the other five soldiers who'd rolled out of the way were caught in a blast of warpfire that blackened the steps and left them screaming and burning for a second before dying. The flung grenades exploded, shattering the barrier of one of the Dancers, while another grenade was contained by Vasir with a biotic field.
The last two turian soldiers were bigger, clearly cybernetic, and Tela Vasir shot one of them in the head with her oversized shotgun, blasting apart the turian's entire face to reveal the plated steel underneath. He staggered back, and then one of the Black Blades threw her warp sword, the blade going completely through his chest to the hilt, pinning him to the central spire of the staircase.
The second cyborg was hit by a huge blade of biotic energy from Trellani, which bisected the soldier mid-chest, spilling blue blood and a mix of organs and metallic components into a messy pile even as the Black Blade who'd thrown her sword used a pull to retrieve it, catching it out of the air with a snort.
Remembering the First Rule of Not Dying Like an Idiot, Dunn checked the soldiers quickly to make sure they were actually dead, before scuttling back into cover. As he did so, he shook his head at the stupidity of their charge.
Granted, the Broker goons were probably used to being the badasses of any situation, the staircase was a really bad place to have to launch an assault from, and walking into a room of snipers and biotics was pretty stupid, but still…
Seconds ticked by, broken only by the continued sounds of the assault outside. Then the comm-link sounded. "Team Tyra, respond."
A few seconds passed before the heavier voice spoke again. "I'm headed back to your position. We have a problem."
Tetrimus's voice was dry, "Yes, clearly there's something nasty down there."
A third voice intruded, female and almost whispery. "You have a dozen more teams elsewhere on the planet, why not simply wait for reinforcement?"
Tetrimus spoke, a hint of frustration in his tone. "I've been trying to comm Tazzik – or any team outside of short-range comm-link distance– since the first explosion. Somehow they have us jammed. Besides, this is a hotel, not a fortress. They could simply blast through the structural supports and drop it on our heads. We have to get out."
The voice of the krogan was again amused. "And there are only two ways out of here. The front is covered with snipers and heavy weapons, and your teams are being shot to pieces. The lobby down there is clearly filled with something bad, and we have to go down a spiral staircase to reach it. Brilliant tactical planning."
Tetrimus's voice was almost amused sounding. "Yes, well, when facing the vakar on foot, you do what comes naturally, Thax."
"And what might that be?"
"Take a third option."
O-TWCD-O
Tetrimus scanned the surroundings from the waiting area above. The west and north were out, due to the frontal assault. Going down a blind staircase into an open area with no cover and someone or something waiting for him was equally stupid.
Losing Dantius at this point wasn't an option – the Broker needed the intel she had on the Thirty. More than that, Dantius had connections and information on Aria – information they could still use to take the Queen of Omega out.
But Dantius wasn't a combatant, and getting her to the spaceport proper would be tricky if they were under assault. He glanced to the south, the wide-open expanse of recreational area and beach, flanked by the retaining wall of the landing zone.
If whoever attacking him had penetrated the security nets, the defenses, and had him trapped here, the chances the spaceport was actually clear was about zero. He thought for a moment, then smiled.
"Immutable. You and Midnight's Kiss will head south, I'll blow the wall. Engage and destroy whoever is assaulting us and take the rest of the teams to the spaceport. I'll take Dantius and her people and get to the vehicles we left in the west parking area. Keep them distracted. Once I'm clear of this damnable jamming, I'll call in backup."
The vorcha-AI hybrid merely nodded, its cybernetic eyes glowing faintly. Midnight's Kiss inclined her head, her voice soft. "And the krogan?"
Tetrimus shrugged. "He'll be with you. Don't let them follow." He turned to the southern wall, and with a gesture blew it out with a powerful push, plascrete and glass shattering and flying outwards. "Go."
The ardat-yakshi assassin nodded, as she and her followers leapt down from the now shattered edge of the lobby floor. Tetrimus turned to three of his soldiers. "Team Mentos, you're with me. The rest of you, engage." He turned to Nassana Dantius. "Change of plans. Come with me."
O-TWCD-O
Dunn was about to suggest maybe moving upwards when there was a roaring blast of some kind, and the sound of shattering glass. A second later, Telanya cursed, her voice full of anger. "Tetrimus just blew a hole in the south foyer, they're getting away!"
Liara immediately glanced to Aethyta. "Chase?"
Aethyta sighed and shook her head. "Chasing him is what he probably wants. Easier to get is in an ambush that way. Why else would he be running?" She paused. "Thane, can your snipers pin them?"
Thane shook his head, then turned to his Dancers. "No. But my people here can. Head towards the shuttle area and scale the wall. Occupy them."
Liara tapped a control on her omni-tool. "I am going to crash shuttles to block them in. We need to move, blow a hole in the retaining wall and engage them there."
Dunn glanced up. "They still got guys up there, don't they? What if this is some fucked up double bluff to get us to move?"
Telanya pulled off one of the belts of grenades that crisscrossed her chest, then did something with her omni-tool and flung the belt near the stairs. "Prox grenades. If they come this way, it should drop the staircase and maybe part of the lobby on them, enough to let us know they're here and probably trapped in rubble. Let's all move out; this lobby is a confined area."
The little group headed out, rifles covering their movement. As they exited the lobby another explosion sounded, this one much closer than before. Screams and the rumbling sound of collapsing masonry echoed from the south.
Telanya's voice was bitter. "I crashed a shuttle at them. I think Midnight's Kiss blocked it, or Tetrimus – too much smoke and dust to make it out. It should pin them for a few minutes, at least."
Thane shook his head. "It will not take a biotic of his skill long to remove the debris." He tapped his comm-link. "Shalai, move in, fastest speed, go for the kill."
Aethyta grimaced as they rounded the corner, coming upon the retaining wall separating the shuttle landing area from the beach expanse to the south. "Need to punch a hole in that, climbing is too risky."
Trellani nodded. "A moment, if you would."
She planted her warp sword into the ground, closed her eyes, focusing her strength, then flung her left hand out. Six bright lines of warpfire smashed into the wall, immediately melting the armaplast where they hit, and then a singularity appeared in the middle. There was a blinding flash and a roar of displaced air, and a wave that buffeted the entire group a bit.
Dunn gaped at the five-meter-wide hole blown in the meter-thick wall, as the smoke from the blast cleared. Trellani wavered for a second and he steadied her with his free hand, even as the Black Blades charged ahead.
She picked up her sword and gestured. "We must move, Mr. Dunn." She followed the Sisters into the breach with him hot on her heels.
The southern expanse of the hotel was a lined pathway leading to the beach, set off here and there with comfortable beach furniture and an open-air pavilion stage for live performances. The southern lobby entrance was just gone, smoking from both the explosion of the shuttle and the exit hole Tetrimus blew through the second floor.
A thick pack of Broker soldiers was hastily digging in, scrambling for cover in the debris left behind from the explosion. As the team scrambled through the wall, they opened fire. One of the Black Blades took a hit in the leg and stumbled, two of her fellow Blades catching her and dragging her into cover.
Behind the Broker soldiers, a small knot of asari surrounded a very large krogan. The asari were moving outwards, flinging rubble out of their way with biotics.
Dunn barely had time to dodge as the Broker's soldiers continued their suppressive fire, cursing as a shot creased the armor plate of his shoulder. He slammed into cover behind an armaplast ledge holding an area light, spraying rounds from his rifle to suppress them as best he could.
Thane's Dancers exploded into motion from atop the wall, flinging biotic blasts as they fell upon the back-line of the Broker soldiers, even as the Black Blades seemed to kanquess as one and crash into the charging asari near Midnight's Kiss. The two groups of asari met in a blinding mess of biotics and warp swords, the screeching clash of warp-blade against warp-blade deafening.
The Dancers tore through the Broker's soldiers, kicking and lashing out with all kinds of biotics. But these were not inexperienced men – they fought back, drawing omni-blades and shotguns, turning the entire fight into a wild melee.
Tela's eyes narrowed as she shot one Broker soldier. "Where is Tetrimus?"
Aethyta and Trellani were moving out of cover, the latter firing bolts of warpfire at the Broker's soldiers. The krogan charged out to meet them, and Aethyta erupted into the kanquess, coming out directly in front of the krogan and slashing him across the leg. That drew both a roar of pain and a line of blood from him. He swung his hammer back in a wide arc with both hands, forcing Aethyta to flash-step back to avoid having her skull crushed.
Trellani employed the kanquess herself, coming out near the Dancers as they fought the Broker soldiers, stopping a burst of fire from killing one with a barrier. A second later she lashed out, her warp sword scything through two Broker soldiers to bury itself into the face of a third before he exploded in a channeled shockwave.
A snarling sound erupted from above her, as the Immutable leapt into the fray. Standing over two meters tall, it was half-naked, wearing nothing but thick black pants and armor-plated boots. Its upper body was a dark red, thick scars flanking exposed cybernetic implants and bulging with subdermal armor.
Its landing coincided with it triggering a plasma thrower, sending a plume of white-hot energy at Trellani. She managed to flash-step out of the way, but the big vorcha was already moving, kicking out at her and driving her back.
Dunn fired his rifle at the thing, stitching rounds across its chest to try and distract it, but it continued forward. A pair of Dancers put down their opponents and rushed the thing, knives glittering with warpfire. The Immutable only smiled as they slammed into him, both achieving instant-kill blows against his form.
The vorcha laughed, grabbing one and triggering the plasma thrower built into the arm, immolating the drell instantly. The other one flipped back, warpfire roaring out to hit the vorcha. Its thick reddish skin melted away, revealing steel spars and some kind of hexagonal mesh that seemed to glow as the Immutable dropped the smoking corpse of the first Dancer and turned on the second one. The drell dodged several lashing kicks and spurts of high-energy plasma, but none of the hits he landed in return even slowed the thing down.
Trellani moved forward, free hand flexing as she hit it with a blast of pure biotic energy, strong enough to send it flying back from the Dancer to smash into a nearby wall. It snarled and leapt forward, ignoring the stream of warpfire the asari threw at it to crash into the drell, long claws tearing into him and sending blood flying.
The Dancer did not die easily, though, clamping his hand over the Immutable's face, which erupted into a blazing ball of warp energies a moment later. With a howl, the thing hoisted him up with one arm and flung him at Trellani, who had no time to soften or block the impact that sent them both to the ground in a tangled heap.
Dunn shifted his fire to the Broker soldiers, seeing as some of them had broken through the Dancers still killing them. The drell assassins had spread out, the sounds of weapons fire and the screams of the wounded underlain with their whispery battle chants as they dodged and flipped to avoid being hit. Biotics, sometimes normal and sometimes green-tinted, lashed out in all directions, from blades of force like the asari used to burning lances of light that smashed the black-armored soldiers to paste against walls or plucked off limbs.
At least a third of the enemy were already dead, but despite this the Dancers were all wounded and being pushed back, as even more Broker grunts were storming out of the shattered wall now, firing as they came.
Aethyta's Black Blades were still locked in frantic, high-speed biotic and sword combat with Midnight's Kiss and her ardats, while Aethyta herself had taken the krogan on with Tela assisting, the two dodging wild swings and pushing him back steadily.
Morinth killed a pair of Broker soldiers with a blazing blue blast of light so bright it left afterimages in Dunn's vision, the explosion following erupting into towering shockwaves tipped with warpfire that scattered another pack of them.
Liara killed another as Dunn shouted, "The fucking vorcha! Kill it!"
Liara glanced at the charging monster, who was almost on top of Trellani and the wounded dancer, and erupted into a run, using her parkour biotics to hop a tumbled piece of supporting wall and open fire. Telanya followed, rapid firing her rifle, distracting shots that peppered the beast.
The AI merely took the shots as if they were meaningless, hissing as it ducked under another kick from the wounded Dancer before catching him by the leg and, in a blindingly fast move, swung him around, up, and then down.
Trellani tried to stop his impact, but the drell's head hit the rubble-strewn plascrete with a sickening thud, blood flying from his mouth as his neck snapped almost instantly. Liara yelled in anger and flung a blade invocation at the giant monstrosity, which only staggered back, the reddish skin covering its cybernetic undercarriage already regenerating.
The thing turned to Trellani, swinging those lethal claws at her, but the priestess blocked him with a biotic wall, stopping him cold. As he rebounded, her warp sword flashed out, carving a burning line across the thing's chest, blackening the metal plating beneath it. It gave a coughing howl and, still ignoring the fire from Liara and Telanya, pulled some kind of device from its belt, throwing it to the ground.
Liara and Telanya stumbled as the phase dissipation bomb went off, washing over the area. Trellani screamed as her wall collapsed, and the Immutable lashed out with a powerful scything backhand that caught her across the face, sending the asari through the air to crash into a heap atop broken rubble.
Dunn cursed, but couldn't break cover to help – the Dancers were hard-pressed now. Even outnumbered ten to one they were still killing the Broker's goons, but nearly all of them were littered with wounds now, their red coats seeping with lifeblood, and still more black-armored bastards poured out of the hotel.
Morinth gave him a glance. "We're going to have to rush them, you ready?"
Dunn closed his eyes. "Jesus fuck, this is worse than Neutron. Let's go, blue."
With a yell, the two launched themselves forward, Dunn firing as fast as he could aim, not even kill shots, just spraying fire to confuse and suppress, while the ardat flung more warpfire in a wide arc, incinerating half a dozen of the Broker's men in a single pass.
The Dancers broke close melee and fell back with acrobatic leaps and biotic jumps, leaving over thirty dead Broker troops and two dead Dancers behind. Morinth flung a pair of singularities, one with each hand, the unstable gravity fields sending the Broker lines into disarray, and Dunn slammed into new cover, dropping his rifle to throw a plasma grenade. He gritted his teeth as it exploded violently, sending burning splatters of melted armaplast in all directions and killing four or five more of the enemy.
Nine Dancers scrambled into cover, most panting and clearly spent. The only one not badly wounded was Thane, and even he was clutching his shoulder, greenish drell blood spilling from his fingertips. "Your assistance saved our lives, darashu. We are in your debt."
Dunn picked up his rifle and gutshot another Broker goon as the singularities exploded, killing more of them. "Don't mention it. Fuck! We can't hold them here!"
Thane pulled out a slender pistol and began firing as well. "We have no choice. Where is Tetrimus?"
Dunn didn't bother answering, as he saw the Sisters of Vengeance close in with the big vorcha cyborg. The Immutable hissed laughter and sprayed plasma at them both, but Liara's hands came up and a brilliant wall of blue light stopped the plasma from hitting them. Even as she did so, Telanya came up on his left side, firing rapidly with her Spear of Athame rifle, shots punching through the barrel-like chest of the vorcha abomination.
Jerking, the vorcha roared as he launched himself forward, buffeting Telanya out of the way with a powerful kick as he slammed into Liara with a shoulder charge that sent the far more lightly built asari flying back, her gun and warp sword slipping from her grasp.
Telanya didn't hesitate, triggering her omni-blade and jamming it into the thing's back with a savage thrust. It gave a coughing howl and swung at her with a backhand that she ducked, rolling and coming up with her rifle pointed at its head.
The Immutable had no time to react as it was shot point-blank in the face with five warp rounds, staggering back with an awful cry of agony and digital pain. Liara got to her feet, her furious expression hidden by her mask, and flung warpfire with a scream of rage. The blue energy enfolded it and overloaded its defensive ablative matrix before blasting completely through the vorcha's body, which finally crashed to the ground in a heap.
Liara looked up as a roar of triumph sounded, as Thax smashed through a fumbled block and crushed Aethtya's shoulder with a heavy blow. Tela dashed in with her own warp sword, lashing a long and ugly cut down the krogan's side, but he took the hit with relish, eyes dancing with what looked like amusement as he reversed his swing.
Tela blocked, but the power behind the krogan's cybernetic arms was incredible, and the hammer smashed her to the ground, driving into her armor with such force that it drove rib bones into her lung. The faceplate of her helmet was spattered with blood as she screamed, which trailed off into a racking wheeze. Thax laughed and kicked her sword away and rolled his shoulders, muzzle split in an ugly grin.
Dunn swallowed. Trellani was down, Aethyta was down, both the Sisters probably spent, the Dancers nearly dead, and the Black Blades were still tied up with the ardats and Midnight's Kiss. He could only grimace as the krogan lifted his hammer to finish Vasir, and then he sighed and leapt forward, ignoring the shots from the Broker's soldiers as he dropped his rifle to pull out a sticky grenade.
He flung it, watching it land directly on the upper armor of the krogan, who only could glance down before it went off with a blinding flash and a deafening bang. Thax staggered back, and Dunn lashed out with his strongest right cross, the power of his own cybernetic arms driving steel knuckles right into the krogan's muzzle.
He actually sent the krogan staggering back two steps, blinking angrily. "…You dare?"
Dunn laughed thinly as he slammed one cybernetic fist into another. "Never beat the shit out of a krogan before. Think you can take me?" He circled the bigger alien, moving away from Vasir's prone form.
Thax paused to laugh, a gleam of grudging respect in his eyes. "At least one of you has a spine. Good." An all too toothy smile. "I love breaking those." The krogan charged, and Dunn just knew this was going to suck.
He ducked under the first blow, thankful he'd trained so hard with Ezno in hand-to-hand combat over the years, and returned a powerful body blow that cracked the big alien's armor and drew a grunt of pain from the krogan. Thax's return hits he managed to block with his arms, wincing at their power.
Stumbling back from a powerful overhand right, he slipped the follow-up punch and launched a kick when Thax was unbalanced, making him bend as he nearly fell. With every bit of power he had, he brought his fist directly down into the krogan's crest, feeling bone splinter beneath his blow.
Thax gave a howl of agony, stepping back and blinking angrily. "You are going to die slowly for that human," he said as his hands fingered the damage to his crest.
Dunn merely gave a bitter smile. "Dude, do you have any idea how many times I've heard that? If you're getting your ass beaten by a human, I don't think I need to worry."
He grinned as Thax charged. If he could keep the krogan angry and off-balance, maybe he could survive this.
O-TWCD-O
While the Broker's soldiers and the forces the Sisters of Vengeance brought to the fight were clashing, the Black Blades were utterly focused on their fight with Midnight's Kiss and her Dark Sisterhood.
The Black Blades prided themselves on being blademistresses, but also soldiers. Each one had mastered a dozen forms of combat, from sniping and demolitions work to flying human-style fighters, and most of them used biotics to enhance their speed, strength, and killing power rather than flashy and direct applications. They were blunt, crude, and proof positive that asari were the supreme lifeforms in the galaxy.
If they had a fell reputation, it was due to their hard-earned prowess. They cut apart whatever target they went after, and they disdained silly things like causes and moral righteousness in pursuit of their passion – combat. They were cold and perhaps even cruel, but they only reflected the ugliness of war.
The Dark Sisterhood, on the other hand, were just monsters. Rapists, assassins, seductresses that always ended the lives of those foolish enough – or unfortunate enough – to fall into their grasp. Once the most terrifying of the Nightwind, their leader's abandonment of the cause had resulted in some of the most powerful ardat-yakshi following her and seeking power for themselves.
They had no goal aside from consuming the lives of those that fell into their grasp and drinking in the terror their very existence produced. They had no pride except in how powerless others were to stop them.
If the Blades were war made flesh, then the Dark Sisterhood was simply evil given tangible form. And in such a clash, there was no quarter sought nor given, only unyielding hate from both sides.
The biotics of the ardats were far more powerful than the Blades, but to their frustration, that didn't seem to help them. The Blades had long ago specialized in how to take apart powerful biotics, and while they didn't use much offensive biotics, their barriers were tremendously powerful.
The battle was fast and chaotic, the Blades utilizing the flash-step so quickly and with such experience that hurling warpfire or blades of force was not only bound to miss, but leave their user open for a decapitating slash. Worse, any use of simplistic attempts to throw the Blades off, like push or lift, was all too often reversed on them, leaving the user helpless for a few seconds.
The Blades didn't need a few seconds to end a life. Three dead ardats already proved this point.
The strongest of the Blades after Aethyta, Smiya, was locked into combat with Midnight's Kiss herself. Given the reputation of the ardat-yakshi leader, Smiya found herself disappointed. While very skilled with a blade and with enough biotic power to nearly match a war priestess, the ardat simply didn't have the experience needed to keep up.
The older asari snarled as she evaded another blast of furious warpfire that turned the section of wall behind her into bubbling, half-melted goop, lashing out with the sword in a shores-echo pattern that Midnight's Kiss barely parried. Two more blows followed up in an oceans-storm riposte that nearly wrenched the warp sword from the ardat's hands.
She danced back from a brutally fast stab, however, smiling a bit as she angled her blade to deflect it away and counter with a stab of her own, which the ardat blocked with a hastily dropped wall invocation. The use of such defensive biotics was the only reason Midnight's Kiss was still alive.
"For a murdering tramp, you aren't half bad." Smiya swung her blade in a flat arc, smirking as the ardat fell for the feint. She flash-stepped to the side even as she rotated her wrist and reversed her swing in a sweeping motion, slashing another cut into the now tattered armor of the ardat. "But you aren't that good either."
Midnight's Kiss hissed as she fell back, already bleeding from half a dozen shallow wounds. She watched another of her acolytes fall, grimacing as the ardat had her head cut clean off by a backwards swing from the Blade that had literally danced past her thrown biotics.
It finally hit her. Despite outnumbering the Blades, they were losing. Another ardat died in a scream of agony, as the Blade slashed through her guard and then literally bisected the other asari with a single overhand chop that spoke of immense strength.
They couldn't win this fight.
Midnight's Kiss narrowed her eyes before bringing up the blade again, noting absently the edge was notched in places. She had to get clear, to make this a biotic fight instead of a sword fight. "You aren't bad either, for an ancient, doddering wreck cast aside by your own government." She smiled and feinted at a charging swing.
"Wow, did you think of that one by yourself?" Smiya's voice was mocking as she flash-stepped back, but that was the opening the ardat wanted. Drawing on every bit of biotic power she had, she flung it into a powerful flare, right at the tangled combat between the Blades and the Dark Sisterhood.
She'd kill her own, but they were dead anyway. Best to kill the enemy with them, and improve her own odds of survival. She laughed as she saw the anger and helplessness in Smiya's eyes as the blast of biotic power detonated.
And was deflected, crawling impotently over a strong wall invocation. Beyond the combatants, the battered form of Trellani slowly rose to her feet, eyes blazing with anger.
"Feeble child, you have preyed on others long enough." Trellani's hands erupted in biotic light, and Midnight's Kiss snarled as she blocked the powerful blast of warpfire that almost tore through her barrier.
Her eyes widened as she realized she'd left herself open, a moment before tearing agony seared through her spine as Smiya cut her apart. The ardat staggered, bleeding from the smoking wound, unable to catch her balance. The Blade sneered and slashed again, this time a killing blow that carved through her right arm to her chest.
Trellani turned from the Blades to the form of the huge krogan, who had blocked Dunn's furious flurry of punches. While the krogan was hurt – an imprint of a fist was indented into the krogan's head plate – Dunn had clearly taken some hits himself, gasping in pain and limping. The human ducked under another thunderous punch, then he locked Thax's arm with a wrap-under grasp – much like a dog's jaw, krogan limbs couldn't generate nearly as much force for opening than for closing – and with a yell of exertion, flipped the gigantic alien over the fulcrum of his hip, kicking him in face viciously.
Before Trellani could react, however, the krogan's own legs snapped out, smashing Dunn's knee. He stumbled, off-balance, and Thax rose with a single motion of flowing power, his own cybernetic fist rising in a smooth arc to strike Dunn directly in the head with a savage sounding crack. The blow lifted the human clear off his feet before crashing to the ground, blood flying from his mouth.
Grimacing, Trellani gathered her strength and extended her hand.
Three bands of scintillating blue energy lashed out, wrapping around the krogan as she lifted him into the air. He snarled and reached for something on his belt, but Trellani had endured enough of anti-biotic devices.
Crawling black energies erupted over the krogan, a moment before Trellani gave a yell of focus and hurled a tangled, chaotic storm of biotic blades at him, the edges howling as they drew in the surrounding air and glowed hotly. The whirling pack of blades hit Thax dead-on, carving huge hunks of flesh and armor away before she detonated the annihilation field over him, blasting the heavy krogan six meters away.
He smashed into the rubble of the hotel wall, dropping to a bloodied, steaming heap atop the wreckage. Trellani glanced at the Blades, as the last three ardats tried and failed to hold off attacks from six warp swords and died seconds later.
The Dancers, firing from cover, had wrought havoc on the Broker soldiers, who were pulling back with all of their heavy hitters downed. Trellani flung a blast of warpfire at them before turning to the crumpled form of Dunn.
She grimaced, as from the awkward angle of his head, it was clear Thax's last blow had broken his neck. If the human had not stepped in when he had, Thax probably would have killed Tela Vasir. To engage the krogan in hand-to-hand combat was perhaps foolish, but no one could ever doubt Dunn's bravery.
She picked up her warp sword, glancing around the smoky, shattered courtyard. Bodies – dozens of the Broker's black-armored troops, two Blades, and six Dancers – lay dead or dying on the plastcrete or strewn over the patio furniture, blocks of rubble, and other debris.
The Sisters of Vengeance each spared a moment to glance around the battlefield before the shorter one levered a badly shaken Tela Vasir up while the taller one attended to Aethyta. Trellani glanced over her shoulder as Thane limped forward.
"We have triumphed. And yet Tetrimus is not here. We cannot let him escape."
Thane nodded wearily. "My men have sniper rifles, if he tries to leave via ground car they can take a shot."
Trellani's voice was tired and soft as she spoke. "I do not think he will flee."
O-TWCD-O
Nassana was nearly out of breath as she stumbled down the steps of the western annex, her aides barely keeping up. For all of the stories of Tetrimus being slow and crippled, she understood now what a bitter lie that was.
The old turian had hustled to get her here, along with a trio of Broker soldiers. The three ground cars were still parked, and the turian finally stopped, not even breathing hard. "Good. Setaas, Gien – each one of you take a single car. Virtua, you take the third. Nassana and her people will go with Virtua, the other two cars will act as decoys. Virtua, take Nassana to Northpoint."
He glanced at the other two soldiers. "Once you two are clear of jamming, contact Tazzik at once, tell him the Sisters are here and we need to go to Plan B – have him reinforce our bug-out location at Northpoint with all remaining teams in the city, and to bring the rest of the HCTs with him to find me. Once he acknowledges, fall back to Northpoint yourselves if you are sure you are not being followed."
Nassana finally caught her breath. "You are… not coming with us?"
Tetrimus shook his head. "No. While I rarely if ever disengage from a battle… this?" He waved his talons vaguely in the direction of the battle in the distance. "This is some tork-shit. I was only expecting the Sisters, not a band of Dancers, a dozen Black Blades, sirefucking war robots, a spirits-damned war priestess, and whatever else they brought with them." He grunted. "Not to mention I thought I killed two of those people and have no idea how they survived."
Nassana frowned. She knew well enough to pull away from a deal that had clearly gone sour, but stories of Tetrimus made it out as if he were invincible. "I find it… strange you were unprepared."
He flicked a mandible in irritation. "I'd expected to have Tazzik on hand before they struck – Thax and the others are strong, but not as strong as that. Even so, only a fool does not plan for expectations to go awry."
Nassana nodded slowly. "You're leaving the others to die, then? A smart move. Underlings can always be replaced, after all."
He flicked a mandible. "They knew the risks. But no, I'm not abandoning them. At the very least, they literally can't kill the Immutable, and while Midnight's Kiss is worthless in the long-run to our cause, Thax is not. I'll go back."
He tapped his omni, loading up some programs. "While Thax and the others are strong enough to have taken the edge off of our enemies, I doubt they can finish them, and the last thing we need is for them to pursue you further. You are vital to our interests – the data you have will provide us the perfect distraction."
He straightened. "So, I'll let them chase me. I have a little surprise of my own for them."
O-TWCD-O
Samara found herself frustrated.
The pacification of Ilium had run into a number of problems, and the media frenzy regarding their actions was not abating. Worse, the initial success they'd had in cutting a swath through the outer slums had been halted by the plasma bomb attack, sniping assaults on her justicars, and higher than expected casualties amongst the Republican Guard.
The Guard, in turn, had reacted with entirely too much firepower, despite Samara's strict orders to only fire when fired upon. The Code did not offer mercy, but it did not justify needless violence, either. The majority of the poor in the slums had attempted to flee, some succeeding – and the disorganized mess that those who'd stayed and fought had created had dragged their progress to a halt.
She'd adjusted as well as she could. They had pulled back their Guard forces and reorganized them, sending roughly half the Republican Guard on the planet to finish cleaning out the dens of iniquity in outer Nos Astra, while the rest pacified what they had taken in already. So far, nine ardat-yakshi had been found and destroyed, with evidence of more.
That was an appallingly high number of ardats for an entire world, much less a single city. Worse, they'd found parts of some kind of asari slave-breaking station, probably owned by off-world batarian slavers, but operated by turians. The facility had been fiercely defended and over two hundred Republican Guard along with a justicar had died to storm it.
Now there were alerts coming in from the southern industrial spacedock of some kind of firefight, panicked reports of plasma mortar shelling, and high-intensity jamming. She didn't want to split her forces further; given the chance, the leaders of Ilium – or more ardats, including her daughter – might somehow slip away.
Before she could make up her mind on how to address this issue, however, another alarm rang out in the spaceport's traffic control tower turned makeshift command center. A Clan data engineer looked up in alarm from her console. "Justicar… fire-teams Setha Nine and Ten report they have been repulsed from the city's FTL comm-link center by heavy Blue Suns units fielding gunships and battle-suits. All forces report additional units advancing on our positions."
Even as she finished her sentence the large haptic viewscreen on the far side of the control room illuminated, the emergency broadcast signal usurping the news station Samara had kept half an eye on. The plain and cold features of Matriarch Anhira Solaha, the leader of the Ilium Council, highest-ranking clanless of the Ilium Court of Corporations, stared out from the screen.
"People of Ilium. People of the Citadel Concord. And, of course, my sisters in the thrall of the Thirty in the Republics.
"You have seen the brutality of the Thirty as they have attacked our world. They came stating they were here to deal with the unrest and damage caused by the beings known as the Sisters of Vengeance, and to go after a dangerous criminal. But the truth has been laid bare. They have arrested standing members of this Council, assaulted and murdered both asari civilians and alien guests, and have declared martial law in defiance of the Citadel Accords of Sentient Rights and our own independent charter."
The clanless inclined her head. "No doubt, they seek to unseat the Court of Corporations from this world. To take what we, the clanless, have built with our own hands, our own hard work, our own losses… and make us one more kneeling batch of slaves. They did not come in peace, nor did they come at our request.
"They have lied to you, my people. They have taken in the CEO of Starshine, who we identified as being the company that produced not only the plasma bomb they claim killed a justicar, but also the ship that destroyed the lives of countless thousands in the FTL plotter incident. They are framing us as the instigators of violence, accusing us of committing vague 'crimes' while they attempt to turn our world into a grim example of the results of defiance of the Thirty."
She took a deep breath. "It is clear they expect us to surrender. To simply let them take from us what we have worked for. They expect us to kneel, as many others have. It is also clear the rest of the galaxy is too weak and cowardly to stop them. The Citadel Council will not act. There is too much fear of how the Thirty will respond if anyone gainsays their will."
The Matriarch stared hard at the screen. "But the Thirty have miscalculated. They abandoned us for centuries, returned only to steal from us, and now they attempt to conquer us? Never. We will not surrender. We will not flee. We will throw your slave armies and justicar lackeys off our independent world and dare the Thirty to claim they are acting legally or in the right."
Her gaze narrowed as she spoke. "We know what you have done, how you have lied to us, and the truth about what you plan for us. And knowing what you really are, and what you did, we will never kneel in supplication to your filthy House of Storms again. This is your final warning. Leave and do not return."
The signal cut out, and Samara closed her eyes. There would be ugly questions on the extranet about the meaning of that last, vague statement. The Thirty would likely order her to retaliate with something extreme if she did not miss her guess.
Despite the ruthless nature of the suppression so far, no one could contest the outer slums were genuinely full of criminals and horrors. If the CEOs had simply surrendered – or fled – this would be resolved. Indeed, they had made very sure not to secure several spaceports in hopes the CEOs would flee.
Samara glanced up sadly as two of her subordinates entered the room. The elder, Justicar Kenia, had been in the Order longer than even Samara. Her features were serene as she spoke quietly. "They are going all-out, Samara. Scouts report thousands of combatants marching out of the inner city. Mostly heavy infantry. That clanless didn't tell us they had this many battle-suits and gunships. We didn't bring heavy equipment to match that, and the Guard is ill-equipped to fight such."
Samara nodded. "I know. We cannot withdraw at this stage, however. Their brazen communication to the rest of the galaxy has doomed this planet. Is the fleet valsharess prepared to fire on our command?"
The other justicar, a younger matron named Niseele, shook her head. "The valsharess reports all GTS batteries on the surface are coming up to full power, as are the orbital defense satellites. The Ilium Fleet has opened range and transmitted they are not going to follow the Court of Corporation's orders to engage us… unless we open fire on the planet. As such, the valsharess feels escalating the issue is unwise and will not engage in surface bombardment."
Samara's hands made a slow sign of siari negation. "I expected such. While I could compel her to obey, she does have a valid point. So, we have to meet them head-on." She gave an exhale. "Pull back our search teams and reform them into at least seven echelons. We'll spread what justicars we have left among them. Make a defensive line just south of the river and await further instructions."
The two justicars departed and Samara moved to the comms panel on one side of the room. She touched the controls gently and waited until the signal link to the FTL comm buoy was established.
"Message to the Thirty; the government of Ilium is in open rebellion. I will be forced to engage in unrestricted warfare as their military capabilities are far greater than anyone had expected. If the rest of Second Fleet is not moving at top speed, they need to."
She ended that message, sending a different one to the senior commander of the fraction of the Second Fleet that was with them, the valsharess. "Valsharess Senia, withdraw one-fourth of your fleet assets to cover the relay in the system and an additional one-fourth to interdiction positions for any vessels that attempt to break the blockade. There are two groups of STG on the planet, the Shadow Broker's ship, and a small number of the Ganar Clan – aside from their vessels, shoot down anything that attempts to leave."
She clicked off, then paused to center herself, seeking the calm focus that all justicars attempted to hold in themselves. She could not let frustration distract her now.
Mirala was somewhere on this world. All of these distractions would only delay the inevitable meeting between them, not stop it. She focused on that thought, letting tension drain from her body. She gave a serene smile as she opened her eyes once more, then headed for the elevators.
O-TWCD-O
Warlord Ganar Dhrag chuckled as his scouts reported the movements of the forces arrayed against him.
The krogan had not been one of the War-Father's favored pupils. He grasped what Okeer wanted, of course. The restoration of the krogan could not happen overnight, and it included both political and societal change alongside the scientific mastery that Okeer had already performed.
However, the allies Okeer chose in his quest were highly questionable. Dhrag had argued fiercely against getting involved with that crazy Saren and the even crazier Benezia, but had been ignored. Later, when Okeer began working with even darker forces, Dhrag had managed to convince him to let him serve on Ilium.
He was hardly surprised, although certainly enraged, to hear that the War-Father's allies had probably been the reason the Butcher targeted and killed him. Joining forces with the Broker was just asking to be double-crossed. The Collectors were even worse, as no one could say what their ultimate goals were – and if they had shared such knowledge with Okeer, he had not passed it on to the clan.
And now the remaining elders of Clan Ganar were acting just as foolishly.
Allies with power were useful, but the Collectors were clearly a threat to galactic peace, and as such, would foul any ties to the Council, to say nothing of the risks posed by such ties in the first place. Sooner or later, the plans of the Ganar would come to light and he doubted the asari – much less the salarians – would hesitate to try and kill all krogan if they knew Okeer's actual goals for the future.
Aria would be much more understanding of such goals and would be able to profit from such, unlike the Council. Unfortunately, most of the Ganar Clan still had ties to the greater galaxy and Aria, like Sederis, was an ally of the Urdnot. For that reason alone, the clan had ignored her – the blood-feud between Ganar and Urdnot causing the clan to see Aria as undependable.
Dhrag himself didn't see the point of the age-old feud. Urdnot Thrax had died at the hands of Okeer. Urdnot Jarrod had been deceived into attacking his own son. Urdnot Wrex had been beaten to a pulp and Urdnot Urv had been slain then turned into an experiment.
Defeating four generations of the Urdnot should have proven once and for all that biotic trickery was no match for intellect and raw power. He had no time for a grudge thousands of years old when the future was there for the taking.
Hence why he was on this asari world risking everything on a roll of the seeking bones. He turned to his lieutenant, a distant cousin of his. "Jatar, have the Blue Suns move forward along the river and dig into defensive positions. Use gunships and the militia to keep the enemy tied up until we're prepared. Once that's done have the battle-suits begin shelling."
The younger krogan, just now coming into full maturity, nodded curtly. "And our own forces? We are not to fight, but to run?"
Dhrag shook his head. "I know it is difficult to endure – but Clan Ganar can't be seen aiding the CEOs. Have all our men pull back to Northpoint and make sure the place is secure. I find it… strange… that the asari have not taken it or the southern industrial spaceport. It is a very curious oversight and one that troubles me. Make sure there are no lingering forces there to impede the plan."
The krogan nodded again and headed out. Dhrag eyed the scout reports again on his omni-tool then tapped the comm-link embedded in it. "Turas. Are your soldiers ready?"
The gruff flanging voice of a turian answered. "Yes. The plasma mortars teams are in position and ready to fire in a conal sweep while the snipers keep things lively. The buildings the mortars are in have been fortified and my men are dug in. The minefield has also been deployed."
Dhrag's muzzle split in a fierce grin. "Good. You may fire when ready."
He clicked off even as a dozen glowing orbs of pale fire lofted into the sky from the tall buildings north of the Vyna River, slamming down into the ranks of the still-disorganized Republican Guard. He knew asari tactics from long experience. They hated absorbing casualties and the Guard were not that good at being soldiers. The justicars were, but there was only a scattering of them. Under heavy bombardment and with no good way to respond, the asari had only one option.
His grin widened as the asari charged forward into the loose militia picket line set earlier. The city lit up with the blue radiance of biotics and the howl of plasma rifles as the plasma mortars continue to bombard the enemy. One such plasma blob was batted away with a blast of blue light, and he frowned.
There were still war priestesses active in the enemy lines.
He tapped the comm-link. "Turas, get your snipers moving. We still have at least one war priestess active."
He didn't get a reply, but he wasn't expecting one. The bombardment continued until a titanic eruption of blue energy formed over the Republican Guard before tearing across the sky to smash into a skyscraper. The tall building, one of several where the plasma mortars were firing from, shuddered as it was struck, glass shattering in a spreading wave as lines of force raced up and down the length of the building.
Two more enormous blasts flashed out from the ranks of the asari to strike the building, which suddenly began to collapse. Chunks of armacrete, a cloud of broken glass, and biotic explosions ripped through it as it seemed to fold inwards.
Dhrag's grin had vanished. The buildings they had chosen for their assault were picked due to being hard targets – the Guard would have to storm each one to take out the plasma mortars, he figured, and he'd loaded them with bully boys, gangers, and a handful of mercenaries to make that an expensive option.
As he watched the skyscraper come apart entirely as it collapsed, a huge cloud of smoke billowing into the air, blocking direct views of the increasingly heated firefight, he realized that the asari simply took another option.
Dhrag blinked, then cursed, tapping his omni. "All mortar teams, set the mortars to autofire. Evacuate. They can take down a skyscraper."
The forces of Ilium – and more importantly, Clan Ganar – could still salvage this but it was going to be even bloodier than he expected.
O-TWCD-O
Tetrimus absently glanced through the windows of the long hallway leading back to the main foyer as another skyscraper collapsed in the distance. He flicked a mandible in amused disdain at the sort of idiots who would push the justicars into using their most powerful arts in a crowded city center, before refocusing his mind on the task at hand.
He spun the cylindrical heat sink on his pistol, checking that the delicate ceramic disks around the cryonic fluids hadn't cracked before snapping it shut. He walked with a sure and steady gait, cane left behind at the parking lot.
This was no time for him to indulge his tastes for terror. He had several ugly problems in subduing this group. He glanced at his omni-tool again, seeing nothing but digital static on the comm-link indicator, and cursed.
If the Sisters of Vengeance were truly paranoid, they'd have encircled the entire complex with snipers, and most likely the team he'd just dispatched would be killed. But the Sisters had been getting sloppy, and the fact no one tried to take a shot at him back in the parking lot made him fairly confident their forces were concentrated in the front and in the back.
He clicked his short-range comm-link. "Remaining teams, check in. Casualties and position."
"Vhaha, light injuries only. Falling back from the lobby with teams Banna and Navar. Both have two dead."
"Iniak, no casualties. With teams Veris and Jurka. Holding position as backup on the second floor elevator station, as requested."
"Temra, two dead. One injured. Team Miska is here. Four dead. Holding position in the lobby."
"Sitah, one dead. Holding position in the foyer."
"Nemoroth, four dead. Pinned by the snipers outside. Lobby."
A slightly panicked voice. "D-Dimrah. I think I'm the only one left alive. Seven teams went out there, some pulled back, but dug in near the breached walls. I got hit by some kind of biotics and thrown through a window, leg's broken."
Tetrimus waited, but no other confirmations came in. That meant the teams he'd sent after Thax and the others were either locked in combat, or all dead. A quick count of teams and soldiers in his head left him with the ugly conclusion that he only had about fifty of his men left alive.
He'd come with over a hundred and twenty.
With a soft exhalation, he clicked the omni-tool again. "Understood. I haven't been able to raise any other forces. Iniak, take your teams and reinforce the lobby with Vhaha, Banna, and Navar. Once you're in place, push out and take down the mechs and the black-armored mercenaries supporting them." He paused. "Temra, Miska, Sitah, Nemoroth – fall back to the hallway near the south entrance. Provide suppressive fire while I engage the enemy. Use smoke and flashbangs. Do we have any kind of force estimate?"
The slightly shaken voice of the member of Dimrah team spoke. "Yes. A dozen Dancers, some are dead. Black Blades, what looked like the Spectre Tela Vasir, and at least one war priestess. Plus some others I couldn't make out through the fighting." A pause, then the voice spoke again. "I'm pretty sure they took the vorcha down. I don't hear any more fighting…"
Tetrimus picked up his pace, reaching the long sloping ramp leading down to the hotel proper from the conference annex. "Execute and hold position. Do not engage until I arrive."
O-TWCD-O
Tela Vasir spat more blood as Liara knelt down to help her up, her face locked into a grimace of pain. She nearly fell as she felt something tearing in her side, and had to struggle to even draw a breath.
Aethyta was gingerly picking her way through corpses, her warp sword held in her off hand, her sword arm hanging limply. Behind her, the Black Blades were gathered around two of their own who had fallen.
Thane sat wearily next to the somewhat battered form of Matriarch Trellani, his features set in a frown. "Tetrimus has escaped. My men reported three ground cars departing from the western annex parking area, out of sniping range."
Liara glanced at Telanya, who tapped her omni-tool. "Drones are on it. We didn't plan for anyone to run away, but I can have the drones launch missiles at the cars and make them stop."
Trellani stiffened, her hand immediately going to her sword as her biotic senses were tingling. Her voice was cold. "…Tetrimus is not with them. He is close, and coming this way."
Morinth grimaced. "Great. Just what we fucking needed."
Aethyta closed her eyes briefly. "Hafta agree. It's bad. We're half-dead and the fucker is fresh – this is gonna be even stupider than fighting him on Omega."
Telanya managed not to say anything to that, her memories of that fight blurred with the nightmares she'd suffered since. Instead, she merely checked the matter block of her Spear of Athame rifle and nodded. "We need to redeploy – this isn't a good place to fight him." She gestured to the hole in the retaining wall Trellani had made. "If we set up on the other side of that, we have good cover and force any troops he brings with him to funnel through the hole."
Thane nodded, hand flicking out in a motion. Six of the remaining eight Dancers headed out, the last two heading further south. "The two snipers I have will set up behind that beach furniture at the shoreline. They'll snipe from behind if they have a shot, as they are the most heavily wounded and not in shape for any close-range combat."
The Blades formed up around Aethyta, Smiya's expression grim. "Mama Fish, Siena and Cefetha are dead. Merentha lost her fucking sword hand and got burned by warpfire. Inis has a gut wound and she's bleeding even after medi-gel, and your sword arm is fucking smashed to hell. You can't fight like this."
Aethyta snorted. "And?"
She jerked her head to Tela who was barely standing. "Take Tela, Inis, Merentha, and our dead and get the fuck to a hospital. The justicars won't fuck with you or Tela. Use the shuttles and go."
Aethyta opened her mouth to speak when Liara touched her good arm. "You will only distract us. You should do as she says."
Trellani did not miss the almost pleading note in the voice of the Sister of Vengeance, and stood up from where she had been contemplating the death of Dunn.
As Aethyta continued to argue, the old war-priestess picked up the man's dog tags and, with a sigh, incinerated the body with warpfire. Despite his often rough edges and sarcastic wit, the former N7 had been brave and clever, and one of the few Cerberus people she felt truly believed in the cause for its own sake, rather than repressed racism.
She would not be happy explaining to Shepard how she got one of her few remaining teammates and friends killed, and did not look forward to that conversation. Turning to the rest, she exhaled. "I also agree with her advice, Matriarch. I will call reinforcements down to deal with Tetrimus and to support us – you should take all of our seriously wounded and go while you still can. Otherwise, they will only die."
Aethyta's expression grew tight and troubled, but she finally nodded. "Fine. I'm coming back as soon as I get my fucking shoulder set, though." She paused, then picked up the warp sword of Midnight's Kiss. "Taking this with me, in case we run into any justicars. Should get us some cooperation from them."
She glanced over the rest of the Black Blades before speaking again. "Smiya, who's the most wounded of our combat effectives?"
Smiya glanced back at the remaining Blades. "Manvai, I guess."
Aethyta nodded. "Good. Go with Thane's two Dancers to the water's edge, you have a sniper rifle as well. Keep them safe. The rest of you, follow Smiya. I'll be back."
Trellani's gaze was on the smouldering hotel building. The sound of plasma mortars had been replaced with heavy repeated firing and the faint screams of dying sapients. "We should move. Tetrimus appears to have moved his force to engage our distraction."
Aethyta led the wounded away, with her supporting Tela, each of the wounded Blades carrying a dead Blade, followed by one of Thane's Dancers who limped along with a sprained ankle. The rest hustled through the hole in the retaining wall, taking up semicircular positions about nine meters away in the tangle of low plascrete walls that divided the various parking and landing areas.
Trellani didn't care for their chances. If they had gone all-out against Tetrimus when they were fresh, the turian mystic would certainly be dead by now. With a good third of their force dead or wounded, and everyone battered, things wouldn't be so simple.
Then again, they had put down Midnight's Kiss, the krogan warlord, and whatever the Depths that vorcha thing was. With no support aside from the Broker soldiers he had left, Tetrimus was still heavily outnumbered.
Liara's voice interrupted Trellani's thoughts. "We're unable to tap their comms – he must have shifted encryption. We need to break it quickly."
Telanya nodded absently. "Trying. Drones are catching up to the ground cars… shit. He must have sent bully boys along, they're firing on the drones."
Thane rechecked his knives and then his head snapped up. "Movement in the rubble on the other side of the wall. Be ready."
O-TWCD-O
Three of Tetrimus's troops advanced through the gaping hole in the hotel wall, shotguns sweeping the area. "No movement, Ginnister."
Another of the troopers flicked his mandibles in agitation, eyes taking in the carnage of the battlefield. "By the spirits, they killed over sixty of our men?"
Tetrimus walked forward, flanked by two more teams, his eye narrowed as he surveyed the battlefield himself. There was no sign of the enemy, not even bodies, although a few piles of ash here and there still glowed warmly in his enhanced infra-sight vision from his cybernetic eye.
He glanced up at the walls, then toward the single large hole blown into the retaining wall, and bared his fangs in a smile. "It seems they have withdrawn to a more advantageous field of battle." He half turned to face the team leader next to him. "Miman, your team has jump-packs. Everyone else, rush the hole – one team will push through the hole and engage anything in sight with heavy suppressive fire while the other team leads with omni-shields until you obtain cover."
He glanced at the only heavy weapons squad. "Your team will remain in cover behind the wall taking shots of opportunity. Disable secondaries, I will have to put down that war priestess before I engage the Sisters directly."
Miman, a salarian with dark skin and a cybernetic eye, gave a nod. "Ginnister, when we jump we'll drop smoke around the hole to provide cover, and grenades to shift enemy positions."
Tetrimus nodded. "I'll be making my own entrance, and flank the entire mess. Hopefully I can get one of them with a good hit before engaging the war priestess. Use anti-biotic grenades liberally, but take care not to throw them at me." He glanced over the teams. "Combat pay is tripled for this. If you survive. Move."
With well-trained smooth motions, the teams fell out, lifting weapons and moving stealthily amongst the blasted rubble. Tetrimus started forward, only to hear a groan of pain from one side. He kicked over a piece of rubble to find the blasted and burned form of Thax.
"…Still alive?" He glanced back into the hole in the foyer, where the last wounded member of team Dimrah waited. "Take him to the western annex, there's still two cars there. Get him to a hospital if possible, Northpoint if not."
The wounded Broker soldier nodded, gingerly stepping down, and Tetrimus continued on his path. He heard the launch of jetpacks and the muted thump of smoke grenades, followed by the harsh bark of the turian squad leader instructing them to move. The sound of heavy rifles and at least one plasma weapon echoed weirdly in the wide-open space of the southern expanse as he focused his attention on the retaining wall. Blowing a hole as wide as the one already in it was probably something he could do, but he didn't see the point.
He engaged his cloaking device, then used a biotic tether and a jump to leap atop the wall lightly. Gazing down, he saw a maze of permacrete and plascrete walls, some obviously moved by biotics into a defensive position. His men were moving erratically from cover to cover under a murderous rain of fire from a group of Dancers and black-armored asari.
His eye narrowed as he took in the armor of the single war priestess, next to the two Sisters in heavy cover. Unless he was mistaken that was the armor of the Stellarch, defaced on the shoulders with the symbol of Cerberus rather than the imprint of the Stars United. That could only mean this was Trellani.
This would be amusing.
He focused his inner strength, generating a tenuous barrier field in a tube shape in the direction of his target, then began preparing the Beam. It took several seconds, and he smiled in anticipation as he finished his preparation and broke the barrier, the lashing silvery bolt of doom striking instantly—
He felt his jaw hang open as it didn't hit her, instead splashing with a titanic explosion off of a shimmering Wall of Athame. He had almost no time to react as the war priestess stopped feigning throwing warpfire at his men and lashed out with a trio of spinning singularities right at his position.
He was moving before his mind even registered the fact that he should have done a biotic charge, and the Athame's Fury invocation blasted through the wall and detonated a moment later. He was hurled in an uncontrolled spin through the air and hit the ground hard enough to dent his armor, skidding a good nine meters before slamming into a concrete barrier. Alarms blared as he surveyed the internal damage he'd just taken.
He cursed his own stupidity. He knew for a fact the leading priestesses of Athame had some kind of hidden techniques that allowed them to sense biotic power, and he'd made himself into a perfect target. He reflexively tightened his barrier, the only reason he was still alive, noting with dismay it had nearly broken, before getting to his feet. The blast had not only reduced a good fifth of the hotel to smoking ruins, but had shattered the retaining wall, killing his jump-capable team.
In the aftermath of the shock, the Black Blades surged forward, bursting into the kanquess and coming out among his men, warp swords flashing in blue streaks of radiance. Before the Broker's soldiers could even react, five were dead and two more lost arms as blades cut through omni-shields. The soldiers fell back in disarray, covering their retreat with smoke grenades.
With a snarl he flung his most powerful project field, catching the entire band of asari and sending them flying. Two hit the secondary wall dividing the shuttle area from the lobby entrance with sickening thuds, the rest were hurled to the ground, a few landing awkwardly enough to break arms or legs.
He turned to block a spear of warpfire hurled by one of the Sisters of Vengeance, smirking as he answered with a blade of force that lashed the tall asari across the shoulder and sent her flying. The Dancers emerged from cover, firing at him or flinging knives with their special biotic attack, none of which even dented his barrier.
"Enough." He slammed his hands together, a titanic push and lift combined that picked up the drell – and several barriers and two shuttles – and flung them back a good fifteen meters. "Trash."
He ignored the ineffective fire of two of the Blades who got to their feet as one was still uninjured enough to charge him, her blade slashing down at him. He used a pull field on the ground to make her stumble before catching her with a biotic enhanced punch to the stomach hard enough to crumple her armor and make her vomit purple blood. Her sword fell from nerveless fingers as he threw her away carelessly.
"Matriarch Trellani. What a pleasant surprise, seeing you here."
The form of the asari priestess stood stock still, a hand in the air to restrain the Sisters of Vengeance. "Tetrimus. Your days of murder are at an end."
He noted with interest that the Matriarch was the least wounded, although her crystalline mask was dented. The asari behind her looked vaguely familiar as well – another Black Blade, he assumed – and the Sisters seemed unharmed.
He merely lifted his hands. "I won't bother with offers of surrender. Your head will divert any attention from the Broker Network when I deliver it to the Thirty, after all."
Trellani's voice was almost amused. "Match your power against mine and see who wins, tool of the Broker."
"If you insist." Tetrimus moved. He anchored a barrier to the ground as he leapt back, flinging a trio of blades in the general direction of the war priestess.
She didn't even bother to draw her warp sword; instead, a hazy field of faint blue light erupted from the ground, brightening into hard focus as the blades hit it. Even as that happened, a ball of warpfire the size of an aircar burst outwards, heading towards him.
He had battled war priestesses before, but never one of the highest-ranking ones. Tazzik had fought this asari, but she'd been heavily wounded, exhausted, and in emotional distress at the time, and he still said it was a mess. He kanquessed to the side as the warpfire tore through his barrier as if it was paper, setting the ground bubbling with its force.
Even as he came out of the biotic charge, however, the other asari he'd noted was on him, warp sword blazing as she cut at him. He ducked back and used a pull to jerk a concrete barrier between them, laughing as the blade got fouled in it and yanked out of her hands. A second later he hit her with a point-blank blast of warpfire that sent her staggering away, following up with a push that literally slammed her directly into the other Sister of Vengeance charging his position.
He had to leap back as two of the Blades had gotten back to their feet, weapons moving in eerie synchronicity as they tried to pin him in place, even as Trellani began gathering her power for some heavy attack. Thankfully, his own soldiers had dug into new positions, and with the Dancers out of the way for the moment, opened up with everything they had on the Blades.
One of them flash-stepped back to avoid the fire, and Tetrimus used her distraction to hit her with a biotic salvo. Six bright bolts of energy slammed into her form, deforming her armor as they sent her skidding. He ducked under the attack of the other asari, catching her arm and snapping it with ease before backhanding her hard enough to buckle her helmet's shape.
Stepping over the stunned asari, he brought up his barrier again to deflect the aimless shots from the taller Sister of Vengeance, his cybernetic eye fixed on Trellani. She didn't disappoint, her hands coming down as some kind of buckling biotic force raced toward him, sending the concrete paving flying in long chunks in his direction even as a push field accelerated them to terrifying speeds.
He pushed more energy into his barrier, blocking the field of rubble, before he saw most of it was coated with the black lightning of an annihilation field. He had no time to react as she clenched her fist and detonated her power, a dozen huge bubbles of biotic energy going off at once and staggering him.
A vicious push hurled a long piece of rebar at him, the metallic rod slamming directly into his shoulder and piercing all the way through, sending him staggering back further. He slammed down his right leg to stabilize himself, then sidestepped a tight bolt of warp energy.
With a single pull, he wrenched the metal bar from his shoulder, tossing it aside. The Blades that were still conscious were now pinned by the heavy weapons team, several of them unable to do much besides take cover due to their wounds. The Dancers, being far more lightly armored and built, had not recovered from being flung half the length of the parking area, and the asari who'd charged him was still on the ground.
That left only Trellani and the Sisters to deal with. He flicked his mandible in amusement. Disdaining any further talk, he simply pushed all his biotic strength into a sustained wave of warpfire.
The barrier of the taller Sister of Vengeance shattered immediately, but Trellani's hands were held aloft, her teeth gritted as her Wall of Athame was strained to the limit. For several seconds the tableau was unchanged – the dark, robed figure limed in blue fire, the raging firestorm bending around the priestess until the very concrete bubbled and liquefied.
Then with a yell Trellani's arms pushed out and forward. Her glowing wall turned pitch black and then the entire raining mass of warp energies was flung back at Tetrimus, who had barely any time to be astonished as it roared over him and some of his remaining men. His cloak erupted into flames and then Trellani hurled a smear field over the area and detonated it almost immediately.
Liara's good eye widened at the simply gargantuan explosion that followed. Sections of the retaining wall that were still standing melted. Three of the Broker's soldiers in cover flashed into burning, screaming torches, while the Blades hissed and fell back rapidly, armor smoking.
Telanya, bent over the form of Morinth, gave a gasp. "By the Goddess…"
Trellani had fallen to her knees from the exertion, but had enough breath left to snort. "Hardly." She slowly got to her feet, her hand falling to her warp sword. "Even that monster should not have survived that."
A single bolt of white hot blazing energy slammed into her wall, shattering it and hitting the priestess in the chest before detonating violently into a cascade of shockwaves. Liara and Telanya were flung away, both landing in a heap on the far side of a concrete barricade, while Trellani's shriek of pain was choked off by a gurgle of blood.
She fell to her knees, most of her chest armor blasted to smoking ruins and some of it glowing hotly as it was sunk into her flesh, before a push field sent her flying backwards. She spun in midair and impacted an overturned shuttle with a brutal thud, falling to the ground boneless a moment later.
Liara and Telanya came to their feet slowly, as a black-armored shape strode through the burning wreckage of the retaining wall. Heavy, black steel plates of angular design encircled blue-lit crystalline implants along the arms, legs, and chest. Spikes thirty centimeters long extended with mechanical grinding noises from the feet, while heavy armor plates over the shoulders slid down to partially cover the chest.
The blasted, ruined features of Tetrimus were gone, a blank, black steel turian skull staring at them with one baleful red eye. Out of his clothing, only his combat belt holding his oversized pistol had survived, his cloak was tatters at his clawed feet as he stepped forward, biotic fire limning his hands.
"Not enough gun, I'm afraid. Now, dear Sisters, you have caused me a great deal of aggravation." Powerful blue-white omni-armor erupted over the turian's body, as he pulled out a long talon dagger that glowed with the steady blue light of some kind of fixed barrier field. "It's been a long time since anyone pressed me this hard. Let us see if you can keep up."
Liara snarled. This monster had murdered her friends, was responsible for the death of her Sara, had probably crippled her aithntar and killed Trellani. She lifted the special grenade she had made and flung it with her biotics.
Tetrimus actually chuckled and stepped forward, confident his powerful barriers would withstand any blast or damage – until it exploded. The grenade was an omni-suspension of tainted eezo around a very powerful phase disruptor, centered around a tiny gravitic generator. It had cost almost two million credits to make, and it had only been tested once.
But it worked flawlessly, and she smiled ferally as Tetrimus's biotic barrier failed and his dagger lost its glow. He staggered, clutching his cybernetic skull, and Liara yelled as she and Telanya charged.
He snarled and boosted forward to meet them, dancing aside from the glowing edge of Liara's warp sword and blocking a pair of vicious kicks from Telanya's cybernetic leg. The three engaged in brutal close-range combat, Tetrimus using his cybernetic speed to keep up.
He backhanded the smaller Sister back, but hissed as Liara's sword carved heavily into his side, alarms blaring in his HUD. He stepped back, only for Telanya to trigger a plasma ejector on the forearm of her armor, spraying him with high-intensity plasma.
He jerked back and barely managed to evade another enraged swipe of the warp sword, kicking Liara in the leg hard enough to make her stumble then following it up with a scissor kick that sent her to the ground. But as he did so, Telanya used a biotic pull to jerk his own gun from his belt and fired three times into his back.
"I trust that is enough gun," said the smaller asari, "And if not…" She poured warpfire into the fresh bullet holes from near point-blank range.
Dire warnings were illuminating the edges of his HUD with red glyphs, as he tried again to reach for his biotics and failed. Liara rose slowly, her fist lined in biotic light.
"Die and burn forever in the Abyss, murderer." A push sent him stumbling back before a flare hit him squarely in the chest. Armor vaporized as his systems began collapsing.
He crashed to the ground a moment later, claws gripping at the dirt in anger and fear. Never had he been reduced to this. His pulse negation equipment was supposed to make neutralizing his biotics impossible.
The slow footsteps of the Sisters got closer. "Knowledge about your cybernetics isn't as well hidden as you would like, turian. But I will admit it took us quite a bit of time to figure out how to shut you down." Liara pulled out her pistol, the one Shepard had made for her. "This is for Sara."
Before she could pull the trigger, there was an explosion from the far retaining wall. Liara jerked up as the wall detonated, and a giant figure on a hovercycle came smashing through it.
Tazzik leapt from the cycle as it soared through the air, the Sisters having to fall back to avoid being crushed as it landed barely a meter from Tetrimus, skidding along away from him and catching Telanya in the legs, sending her to the ground.
Tazzik came down in a crouch and fired his lance cannon immediately, Liara barely able to block it with her barrier. "Aww yeah! I'm crashing this party." He fired a pair of mini-missiles at the the Sister of Vengeance's crouched form, driving her back into cover.
He glanced down at the battered form of Tetrimus, shorn of his armor and robes, and shook his head. "Got in over your horns, old bird?"
Tetrimus just growled. "They've hit me with some kind of… fouled eezo explosive. Systems are fucked and my biotics aren't responding." His voice dropped. "And they took my pistol."
Tazzik nodded. "You got sloppy again, didn't you? No matter. The boys are cleaning up the enemies out front, had two more teams go and cover Nassana. I'll handle these two."
In the distance, Liara grimaced as she pulled Telanya into cover. "Now what?"
There was a weak groan from where Trellani lay slumped, as she managed to find the strength to tap her omni-tool. "Lion… Priestess here." She coughed blood. "Ragnarok."
The crisp voice of Petrovsky answered. "Understood. Deploying."
Tazzik had just dropped a portable kinetic barrier over Tetrimus and gotten to his feet when his radar systems reported incoming orbital signatures. He glanced up.
Ten white-painted battle-suits came crashing down, each one trimmed in black and gold and boldly displaying the Cerberus insignia. As each one powered up and began to move, Tazzik gave a sigh. "You have to be shitting me."
Liara found herself smiling for the first time in weeks, as the sound of more drop pods crashing into the concrete let her know more Cerberus soldiers had arrived.
Tetrimus, on the other hand, looked up at Tazzik, and gave a small chuckle. "Buy me three minutes and I can fix this."
Tazzik's omni-armor lit up and ports on his arms and shoulders slid back. "Hurry it the fuck up, or there won't be anything left for you to kill." He grinned as his combat mask slid down over his features, his voice erupting from loudspeakers. "Let's get wild!"
